Meet the teenage NI YouTube star now partnering with Disney

A teenage Northern Ireland YouTuber says he is delighted after his channel attracted over 600,000 subscribers and secured him a partnership with Disney.

One ‘Never Have I Ever’ video the 18-year-old Londonderry lad uploaded featuring little brother Callum and himself over the summer proved so popular that it has now been watched over 7.5 million times and climbing.

Earlier this year Adam, a pupil at St Columb’s College, reached his initial goal of securing the YouTube Silver Play Button, awarded by the company to people whose channels attract 100,000 subscribers.

His channel, TheNewAdamb99, has sky-rocketed in popularity, and, as a result, Adam is now setting his sights even higher. “The next one would be the Gold Play Button, which is one million subscribers, and hopefully I can push now on to get to gold,” he said.

Adam was contacted by Disney recently about developing a partnership with his channel; one that is now set to see him feature on the Disney channel along with Callum.

“It’s fantastic,” Adam said. “I have management now and they try to get me brand deals and also opportunities outside of YouTube.

“Some of the things we are working on are really big and will be announced next year. I started off this year with 10,000 subscribers and now there are over 650,000 subscribers. It’s a crazy journey and the whole process of it has been amazing.”

Adam said he has learned a lot since starting up his channel, and urged others starting out to stick with it.

“At the start, some videos did well and some got a lower amount of views. That can discourage people at the start. Some people get disheartened if it doesn’t go viral. But it’s good to learn the different ways to do YouTube and there are actual strategies you can build in. Keeping determined and consistent is one of the most important things.”

Adam’s YouTube channel took off after he posted a few videos on tricks that will result in a humorous response from the virtual intelligent iPhone assistant, ‘Siri’.

Another involved a Wubble Bubble putting things inside a Wubble Bubble and a Fidget Widget Spinner.

He has stayed true to his main reason for starting the channel, which was keeping people entertained. And people have responded in their droves, with some of his videos attracting 10,000 or more comments. “It’s not possible to respond to them all. I do respond when the video goes live,” he commented.

As well as having hundreds of thousands of subscribers from right across the world, Adam also has a strong local subscriber base, and is often recognised from his channel when out and about.

“It’s mad. I wasn’t used to people coming up to me in public and saying I watch your videos’ but now every time I go up the town people come over, and even a few people in school. You can see the difference locally. The whole thing is just crazy. It’s good craic and love people coming up to me now. If people do want to come up for a chat that’s great.”

Adam said he very much sees YouTube as a part-time job. “At the minute I make one to two videos a week, and I can depend on it as my job. I make enough, with brand deals and working with a few companies. I always say it is a dream job. Because it’s a thing you love doing, it doesn’t feel like a job. I also want to do more charity work, use my influence for a charitable, local cause as well as show off Derry. I love Derry, it’s a class place and with Hallowe’en there recently, it just shows the potential. It’s an amazing city.”

Adam said he plans to keep working at his job and building on the success he has had to date. “Myself and the management are really excited for different prospects and things that just present themselves from doing YouTube. I’m lucky to have that,” he said.

And over the summer, he was also able to meet up in person with some of the UK and Ireland’s most successful YouTubers at the UK’s largest YouTube and online Video Festival, Summer In The City in London, including people he has been following online himself, and keeps in touch with some of them.

He said it was great to get the chance to meet fellow YouTube creators with similar interests and content to his own.

“I hope to have a few creators over from England here in Derry next year as well,” he said. “Hopefully we will organise a big meet and greet.”

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